Re:Gender works to end gender inequity by exposing root causes and advancing research-informed action. Working with multiple sectors and disciplines, we are shaping a world that demands fairness across difference.

Diversity & Inclusion

Since 1999, the annual Female FTSE benchmarking report has provided a regular measure of the number of women executive directors on the corporate boards of the UK's top 100 companies.

The Female FTSE Index is announced each year in November, and attracts considerable press attention in the UK and internationally. The study was hosted at the Chancellor of the Exchequer's offices at No. 11 Downing Street in 2004. Reports are available from 2001 onwards. The Index is incorporated in the Reports.

The twelfth installment of the Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor polling series focused specifically on the different experiences and economic expectations of men and women in the changing economy. This survey catalogues experiences of men and women in their home, family, and professional life, and gathers perspectives on the idea of opportunity in society and the workplace in the present day and how opportunity has and will change across generations. The survey also measures Americans' opinions about the changing gender profile of the country's workforce and what factors contribute to the continuing wage gap.

Only 14.3 percent of Division I coaches are women, the fewest since 1992, according to a national survey by the former Brooklyn College professors R. Vivian Acosta and Linda Jean Carpenter.

Longtime female coaches say that many qualified candidates, especially those who are mothers or plan to be, leave the profession rather than juggle the demands of coaching and motherhood.

Fewer, they say, are willing to uproot their families to pursue jobs, as men routinely do, or toil for 10 years at modest pay for a chance to be a head coach when so few women are hired. Most Division I assistants make $40,000 to $50,000 a year. The median salary for Division I head coaches is $125,100, according to the 2004-10 N.C.A.A. Gender Equity Report.

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said that she was traveling in Texas Tuesday when she read about Mitt Romney's promise to "get rid of" Planned Parenthood in order to cut the deficit.

"I was really stunned to read that Mitt Romney has now said he wants to get rid of Planned Parenthood, because really what that means is he wants to get rid of preventative health care for 3 million folks every year," Richards told reporters on Wednesday.

"It shows an extraordinary lack of understanding of family planning and the budget to say one of the ways he's going save money in this country is by ending birth control and family planning," she added. "The most conservative economist will tell you that family planning saves money. It saves taxpayers money. It's ludicrous to think that Mitt Romney, who is running for president of the United States, thinks we're going to balance the budget by ending birth control access in this country."

In the next five years, STEM jobs are projected to grow twice as quickly as jobs in all other fields according to the U.S. Bureau of Statistics. While all jobs are expected to grow by 10.4 percent, STEM jobs are expected to increase by 21.4 percent. Similarly, 80 percent of jobs in the next decade will require technical skills.

By this measure, future STEM jobs represent a huge opportunity to today's students. But to put these numbers into perspective, of the 3.8 million ninth graders in the U.S., only 233,000 end up choosing a STEM degree in college, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. This means only 6 percent of ninth graders will become STEM graduates. And of these graduates, women will be even more underrepresented in most STEM fields.

These are alarming statistics. How do we get more young boys and girls to be interested in STEM-related fields? It isn't an easy task. Schools do not always adequately prepare students for these rigorous subjects, and college programs are designed to weed out the less persistent. Nationally, only 41 percent of initial White and Asian American STEM majors who begin a degree in STEM-related fields complete their degree in less than six years.

In addition, societal pressures continue to loom over girls who might otherwise consider the STEM fields. A couple of years ago, I met amazing parents, both of whom had a background in engineering and hoped their 10 year-old daughter would follow in their footsteps. They encouraged her to take an after school science/robotics program. When she got there, she found she was outnumbered 6:1 by boys in the class. As the only girl, she came home crying much of the time because she was teased and told that geeky girls are not welcome in the boys' club. Ironically, by the time young adults are entering college programs in STEM fields, many complain about the lack of gender diversity.

Diversity in executive management is low at all agencies when compared to the percentage of people of color in the civilian labor force. Three agencies—the Federal Reserve Banks of St. Louis, Boston, and Cleveland—have no people of color in executive management.

When Rush Limbaugh first began using the term "feminazi" in the 1990s, he said that it described "a specific type of feminist" and that there were "probably no more than 25 of them." However, since then, he has used the term as a broader slur to attack feminists, pro-choice activists, and progressive women.

What's the connection? We live in a sexualized society where the gap between fantasy and reality is vast and harmful.

"Women are aspiring to do great things in leadership, yet the glass ceiling is still there because of the way media depict women," director and activist Jennifer Siebel-Newsom said. "It influences our culture and dictates our gender norms and values."

Siebel-Newsom's documentary, Miss Representation, is the latest cinematic foray in the movement to challenge portrayals of beauty in "the media," a term used to describe all forms of mass communication, from the internet, TV, film, magazines, radio and advertising.

In Asia, as in the rest of the world, board composition concerns have shifted from independence, to competencies, to commitment, and now to diversity. There is an increasing recognition that boards need to incorporate diversity considerations―particularly with regard to gender―when appointing directors.

Partner Lisa-Marie Monsanto is among the 30 women being celebrated by the National Council for Research on Women for their efforts to advance women’s issues, promote women's leadership and change the way the world views women and girls.

Partner Lisa-Marie Monsanto is among the 30 women being celebrated by the National Council for Research on Women for their efforts to advance women’s issues, promote women's leadership and change the way the world views women and girls. The honorees were recognized at the NCRW's annual Making a Difference for Women Awards Dinner held March 6 in New York. The NCRW is a network of leading research, policy and advocacy centers committed to improving the lives of women and girls. Ms. Monsanto was nominated by her peers for her outstanding work promoting women's leadership in the United States and abroad. In addition to serving on Katten's Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity, Ms. Monsanto is a member of the Board of Directors of the Rotary Club of Washington, D.C., a LEADer with Women’s World Banking and a member of the Leadership Circle of Women’s Foreign Policy Group. As a board member of The White House Project, she helped create its Washington, D.C. Leadership Circle, bringing together female leaders from the public and private sectors. Ms. Monsanto also serves on The White House Project's Corporate Council. Click hereto read more about the 30 Leaders Changing the Way the World Looks at Women.